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Actor Wesley Snipes was indicted Tuesday on eight counts of tax fraud for allegedly failing to pay nearly $12 million in taxes and failing to file returns for six years.
Federal prosecutors in Tampa said Snipes fraudulently claimed refunds in 1996 and 1997 on taxes already paid, and then failed to file returns from 1999 and 2004. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The actor, who starred in the "Blade" trilogy and in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" and the 1992 blockbuster "White Men Can't Jump," has not been arrested because authorities don't know where he is, the IRS said. Snipes, 44, had a home in Windermere.
According to the federal indictment, Snipes had his taxes prepared by accountants with a history of filing false returns to reap payments for their clients. As part of the deal, the indictment alleges, the firm, American Rights Litigators, would receive 20 percent of refunds from clients.
In 2002, the Justice Department sued a Florida tax preparer who it said filed bogus tax refund claims, including a $7.3 million demand for Snipes.
Snipes was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which said the preparer's largest claim was an amended income tax return filed on behalf of Snipes and dated April 14, 2001. The return requested a $7,360,755 refund for taxes paid in 1997 and said Snipes' adjusted gross income was zero, according to the lawsuit.
It said the preparer, Douglas P. Rosile Sr., told clients that only income from foreign sources was subject to taxation. The resolution of that lawsuit could not be immediately determined.
Separately, South Africa refused to admit Snipes in 2005 after officials said he tried to enter the country with a forged passport.
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